I want to hurt him/ I want to give him pain/ I am a roman candle/ my head is full of flames (Roman Candle)Elliott Smith is arguably one of the most tragic figures in American rock music of the past decade. A troubled, yet gifted individual Smith utilized music as an outlet for expression: an opportunity to peel back the layers of his soul to an extended audience. His brief career was typified by his signature repetoire; songs about rejection, betrayal, loneliness, suicide, drug use and physical abuse.
His demise via self-inflicted stab wounds appeared to typify a life centered on personal anguish. Unlike British folk artist Nick Drake who Smith was often likened to, the Oregon based singer provided a raw bluntness to the proceedings. Even his most coded dialogue became intrinsically personalized and specified thematically. While the equally tragic and psychologically maligned Drake revealed the innermost sentiments of his soul to a cruel, ignorant world, his words became dressed in metaphors barely elicited from his mumbled baritone vocals. Unlike Nick Drake, Elliott Smith's hushed whisper spoke volumes of his turmoil.
Drake's barely audible gestures were connected to his shy personality and reclusive nature; Smith's were frail and cracked: blistering personal anguish with lyrics filled with brutal honesty and an oft-utlized directness Names such as Jeff Buckley, Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain have been mentioned in the same manner as Elliott Smith, yet unlike the noteworthy latter, journalist Alexis Petridis has summized Smith's "gloom was more than sulky posturing: when Smith sang about heroin addiction, alcoholism or depression, he was singing about things he had experienced first hand."[1]
Yet, before he found critical notice and was dutifully christened "Mr. Misery"- a pun on his Oscar nominated song "Miss Misery" for the film Good Will Hunting- by lazy music critics, Elliott Smith laid the foundations for his musical pallette on the title track to his first album Roman Candle: an unnerving, acoustic-driven lo-fi sparseness with a rare undercurrent of electric guitar and only a hint of percussion via drums played with paintbrushes. Filled with spiralling acoustic guitars and a brief, yet menancing electric guitar "Roman Candle" demonstrates both Smith's unique talent and the personal demons his musicianship would bring to the forefront. Songs brim with a disconsolate hushed underbelly of aggressiveness that snaps under the weight of the tension provided. His songs do not end, but rather collapse abruptly from within.
Legend has it that during Smith's brief stint with also-ran Northwestern grunge band Heatmeister, the singer would retreat to his acoustic guitar after each show: escaping the harshness of reality for introspection. Despite Elliott Smith's melancholy lyrics, his melodies share a swift resemblance to the work of Paul Simon. The difference is to be found in the lyrics. Under the tutelage of Paul Simon, a song like "Condor Ave" would become a wistful and nostalgic sepia-tinted memory in the vein of "Kodachrome" or "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard." Yet in the hands of Elliott Smith it becomes a seething elegy to a woman killed in a car crash after an argument with her lover.
Roman Candle is noteworthy for the lack of songs featuring a title. Smith's trademark- often upbeat- finger-picking style is noticeable in "No Name #1" and "No Name #2": the former a melancholy tale of introverted rejection and social awkwardness at a party; the latter highlighted by the addition of a harmonica to a tale of a woman trying to relay important news to a disinterested boyfriend. "No Name #3" features a gentle patchwork of acoustic guitar set to lyrics thematically appearing to represent parental conflict and childhood anguish. Like Smith's other songs its wrapped in a web of poetic intrigue and interpretative measures.
"Drive Our Town" features another signature element of Elliott Smith's sound: multi-tracked vocals. The layers of vocals add a dark, almost apocalyptic aura in the resentment billowing under the frayed softness of Smith's singing. Like "No Name #4," the song deals with individuals escaping relationships through adultery ("Drive Our Town") or fear of abuse ("No Name #4"). The spectre of alcoholism is felt in the album's final two tracks: the instrumental "Kiwi Maddog 20/20" and "Last Call." Both utilize electrical guitars and a tempered use of percussion with the former penned in ode to the cheap fortified wine MD 20/20.
Adding a rare lead electric guitar to the proceedings, "Last Call" rages with self-anger with Elliott Smith describing an alcholic individual-possibly himself- who drinks to escape the past. Ending with a mantra of "I want her to tell me that she would never wake me", the song becomes increasingly personalized in terms of language with terms such as "he" being replaced by "I." Bristling with vented emotion, the song encapsulates a level of self-loathing and fury that perhaps betters the shrieking responses perfected by Nirvana during the same period.
Recorded on a four-track machine in a basement and released on obscure indie label Cavity Search, Roman Candle is an emotionally complex debut album dominated by Elliott Smith's excellent acoustic work and anguished, yet well-crafted words. Originally conceived as a series of demos for tracks ill-fitting with the grunge aesthetic of Smith's bandmates, Roman Candle showcases the birth of a tragic talent in late 20th century American music: the creator of melodic encapsulations of misery, isolation and life's ill-fitting scenarios.
Tracklisting:
1. Roman Candle 3:37
2. Condor Ave. 3:34
3. No Name #1 3:03
4. No Name #2 3:34
5. No Name #3 3:13
6. Drive Over Town 2:36
7. No Name #4 2:30
8. Last Call 4:38
9. Kiwi Maddog 20/20 3:40
Highlights:
Roman Candle, Condor Ave, No Name #2, No Name #1
* Roman Candle is released through Cavity Search Records
Copyright 2007 8½ Cinematheque
[1] Petridis, Alexis. "The Mysterious Death of Mr. Misery" Guardian Unlimited. March 19th 2004. Source
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